University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Jenna Potts: My Unforgettable Journey with Pitt Volleyball
12/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
My Unforgettable Journey with Pitt Volleyball
In the summer of 2013, I called Dan Fisher, my future head coach at Pitt, to tell him that I officially decided to transfer into the program. The butterflies in my stomach made it impossible for me to communicate properly. I gave him the most non-committal commitment possible. He wasn't quite sure what the words stumbling from my mouth meant, and neither was I.
"So does this mean you're coming to Pitt?"
"Yes, I think so…I'm coming."
Clearly, I was terrified.
My freshman year of college was not the most pleasant period of time for me. I tore my ACL eight days into preseason and found myself at a university and on a team where I felt like I didn't quite belong. A few days prior to this phone call with Dan, I had just been cleared to play volleyball again after ten grueling months of rehab.
I was terrified I wouldn't be the same agile player I was before my injury; I was terrified I wouldn't be able to live up to Dan's expectations that I could contribute right away; I was terrified I wasn't cut out to play in the ACC; I was terrified I wouldn't belong.
But a couple weeks later, after I moved into my first apartment and started summer workouts with my new team, these fears quickly melted away. As we sweated through open gyms in the jungle-like climate of the Fitzgerald Field House, sprinted countless times around the track, sunbathed on the Pete Lawn, watched Vampire Diaries (#TeamStefan), and created countless inside jokes that we still laugh at years later, I suddenly came to realize I found where I belonged.
Four years later, my teammates had become my sisters. I realized Dan was right - I could contribute right away. I instantly became the best blocker on the team and eventually broke two blocking records. I went from doubting I could even play in the ACC to earning not only first team All-ACC honors my senior year, but also AVCA honorable mention All-America. I was part of the rebirth of a program.
My time at Pitt has been an incredible, life-changing experience, but my senior year in itself was perhaps the most magical. We upset three ranked teams. We came back from being down 24-17 on match point against NC State and ended up winning in five. We finally saw "PITTSBURGH" on TV during the selection show after two years of heartbreak (and 12 years since the program last made the tournament). We beat Dayton in the first round, and we took a beautiful set off Penn State in the second round.
But truly, for me, I never would have experienced any of this volleyball glory or have created these countless beautiful friendships if the coaching staff wouldn't have taken a chance on a skinny, inexperienced, barely-cleared transfer in the summer of 2013. They believed in me when I clearly didn't believe in myself. In short, I'm forever thankful they gave me this opportunity, and I'm thankful to have sheepishly accepted it on the phone.
And now - just like that - my four-year journey at Pitt is over. It hasn't quite hit me yet. It feels like I'm just going home for winter break. But instead of coming back for spring workouts, I'll be moving to Europe to play professionally in Czech Republic.
As I say goodbye to my teammates, coaches, athletic trainers and everyone else involved with the program, it of course is sad, but I'm not quite as sad as I thought I'd be. Maybe it's because the magnitude of change happening in my life hasn't quite hit me yet, but I think it's mainly because I know this isn't the end - that these are just temporary goodbyes. These people are my family now and I know for a fact we will be reunited many, many times throughout the rest of our wondrous lives. We'll sip on wine at our weddings and dance to those songs that have dances attached to them (Ju Ju on that Beat, Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)…those songs), but I'll shake my head in irritation like the curmudgeon I am when it comes to these stupid songs until I finally cave in and join, and then we'll stay up until 4 am laughing at all the ridiculous memories we've created together.
